There are several existing communication systems or methods for exchanging or transferring data for electronic commercial transactions. Such communication technologies are typically used for exchange of information between existing application systems for the purpose of completing electronic commercial transactions.
Generally, the goal of such systems is the exchange of information in the following exemplary fashion. When a business transaction is completed at a first application system, it may be desirous for some reason to communicate the information related to the transaction to a second application system. For example, if a person in a bank in Europe wants to deposit funds in the European bank for the purpose of transferring the funds to a U.S. bank, it would be necessary to communicate the transaction that occurs at the European bank to the U.S. bank. When the second application system receives the communication, the system performs the action required as a result of the communication (the “required action”). Further, once the required action has been taken, it may be desirable for the second application system to communicate the results of the action back to the first application system. For example, the person in the European bank will want confirmation from the U.S. bank regarding receipt of the funds at the U.S. bank. This is the typical method for achieving the goal of information exchange as it relates to electronic transactions.
One example of an existing communication system is a messaging system. An information exchange as summarized above takes place in the following manner for an existing messaging system as depicted in FIG. 1. When a business transaction is completed at a first database 18, a first application system 10 associated with the database 18 first must determine the destination of a message relating to the business transaction. Based on the destination, the appropriate standard message format for the second or receiving application system 34 must be selected by the first application system 10. As will be explained further below, a typical messaging system typically uses only one or two standard message formats, because of the complexity and time involved in making each application system in a messaging network compatible with a new format. The first application 12 then converts the transaction information into the selected message format 14. The system 10 then places the message, in the proper format, into a message queue 20 that communicates with the messaging system 22. The messaging system 22 routinely searches the queue 20 for messages and pulls any appropriate message from the queue 20 and sends the message to the appropriate communication device 24 within the system. The communication device 24 identifies the target address of the message and transmits the message over a network 26 to the appropriate communication device 28 that is in communication with the target system 34. In some networks, the receiving communication device 28 will send a confirmation message back to the sending communication device 24, indicating receipt of the message. The receiving communication device 28 delivers the message to the appropriate message queue 32 at the appropriate second or receiving application system 34, where the message is stored until the appropriate second application system 34 retrieves the message from the queue 32. Subsequently, the second application 36 reads the message from the message queue 32 and performs the required action, which includes both completing the action and writing a completion status back to the second system's existing application database 42. At this point, if a confirmation at the first application system 10 is desirable, the second application system 34 must affirmatively create and send a separate message in the proper format back to the first application system 10 over the messaging system in a reverse of the process described above.
Examples of this technology include Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Extended Markup Language (XML). Further examples include standardized industry networks for sending and receiving EDI and XML messages such as proprietary financial transaction networks like SWIFT, FedWire, and RTGS.
A similar application-to-application communication technology relates to web service or .net design systems. These systems are similar to the messaging systems in that they are separate, independent, one-way, one-time, application-to-application message systems. The information exchange takes place in the following manner for an existing web service, which is depicted in FIG. 2. The existing web service technology provides an independent, separate communication facilitator accessible over the Internet or any network. More specifically, the web service is dedicated to facilitate communication between a specific application at an application system and other application systems. Thus, each application system must establish its own web service application on the network for each application that it wants to make accessible for communication over the network.
Upon completion of the business transaction at the first database 52, the first or sending application system 50 must determine the appropriate receiving or second application system 76, then locate the web service application 68 for the appropriate receiving application system 76. Once the first application system 50 has identified the appropriate web service application 68, the system 50 formats its transaction information into the appropriate data format to be compatible with the appropriate receiving web service application 68. The web service call application 62 of the sending system 50 then electronically “invokes” the appropriate receiving web service application 68. When the connection is established, the receiving web service application 68 must perform with its security application 70 an authentication to ensure that the web service call application 62 is authorized to invoke the receiving application 68. Then, the web service call application 62 of the first application system 50 transmits the formatted message to the receiving web service application 68. The web service application 68 receives the message and validates the format of the transaction information. Then, the receiving web service application 68 invokes the appropriate previously established business logic at the business logic application 72 and communicates the transaction to the database 78 at the receiving application system 68. Alternatively, the receiving web service application 68 may invoke the appropriate application in the receiving application system 76 and the appropriate application invokes the appropriate business logic and communicates the transaction to the database 78 at the receiving application system 76. In some two-way web service networks, the receiving web service application 68 can communicate back to the sending web service call application 62 the status or completion of the business transaction.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a communication system that provides compatibility between disparate databases and allows for two-way exchange of information with automatic confirmation of successful exchange. Further, there is a need for a communication system that allows for direct communication between databases without the need for application-to-application communication to drive the information exchange. In addition, there is a need for a communication system that provides sufficient flexibility to add or adjust compatibilities quickly and easily to allow for communication with new database systems or database systems that have changed the format of their communications.